The Latest from Art of Cool

AOC Weekend Fun: Women’s Empowerment 2015 Performers

Joining us at Women’s Empowerment this year? Check out the lineup of stellar performers!

Jussie Smollett made his star debut as “Jamal Lyon” from the hit Fox series Empire. He will be performing his hit song “Good Enough” at this year’s Women’s Empowerment 2015!

For all of his life, KEM has been driven by music and the emotions involved in bringing it to life. That passion stems from the days he spent as a child playing the old piano at his grandfather’s church.

For KEM, there’s always been a deep and very intimate connection to music, which has evolved throughout his personal life experiences.

Today, the internationally renowned R&B singer/songwriter has to his credit three Gold-selling albums with Motown (KEMISTRY; KEM: ALBUM II; INTIMACY); two GRAMMY nominations; four #1 hit singles (“Love Calls,” “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” “Why Would You Stay” and “It’s You”), along with several sold-out national tours and international shows.

Three-time Grammy Award-winning artist Ne-Yo was explaining the genesis of his new album title, R.E.D., an acronym for Realizing Every Dream. “It came from me stepping outside myself, looking at my life as it is today and realizing that every dream I’ve had from the day I decided I wanted to do music, that I wanted my life to be about music, every dream that I’ve had from then til now, if I haven’t realized it by now, I’m definitely on the way to realizing it.”

The album’s lead single, “Clean This House,” met unprecedented success when it entered the gospel radio charts at #28, then skyrocketing to the top ten within just weeks. Anticipation is high for RESET, the follow-up to Carree’s Stellar Award-winning debut solo album, Uncommon Me.

Israel Houghton is known for injecting contemporary gospel and worship with a blazing energy that has made him among the most influential tastemakers in his field. As a singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer and worship leader, he has created a canon of songs that have become standards in houses of faith around the globe. He has accomplished this largely as the leader of “Israel and New Breed,” a Grammy, Stellar and Dove Award-winning musical ensemble and ministry organization that has amassed gold-selling albums and critical platitudes reserved for the best of the best.

Rising gospel star Tasha Page-Lockhart didn’t have to look far for inspiration when it came time for her to record her major-label debut, soul-and-spirit-soaked tour-de-force Here Right Now.

All the Detroit native had to do — with the help of album executive producer and gospel great Kirk Franklin – was mine diary-personal material from her deeply painful past: a more bitter-than-sweet childhood marred by sexual abuse, promiscuity and heartbreakingly low self-esteem.

On the 11-track Here Right Now, released through Franklin’s label, Fo Yo Soul Recordings/RCA, Tasha — who struggled for years under the crippling weight of addiction — is a woman reborn through the power of God’s love. Here Right Now will bless all within the sound of her incredible voice with personal testimonies of His saving grace.